So that bit jumped out at me initially. It sounds like a great deal, right? Instead of the usual “bait and switch,” where your mortgage refinance is riddled with fees, you’re actually getting the interest rate they advertise with no fees!

But wait, this must be too good to be true. How can you get a super low rate and pay no fees. The short answer is you can’t. There’s no free lunch, or free mortgage, for that matter.

So borrowers that elect to go with this loan program option won’t have to pay those fees at closing. However, they’ll wind up with a mortgage rate of say 4.125% instead of 3.99%, or 3.50% instead of 3.25%.

While it may not seem like a lot, that little eighth or quarter point can cost you a pretty penny over the life of your mortgage loan.

Let’s look at an example of CashCall’s No Closing Costs mortgage:

If you paid your closing costs out of pocket and took the lower rate, you’d end up with a monthly mortgage payment of $1,430.52, and total interest of $214,987.20 paid over the life of the loan.

If you went with the No Closing Costs rate, you’d have a monthly mortgage payment of $1,453.95, and total interest of $223,422 over 30 years.

As you can see, the monthly payment wouldn’t be all that much different, about $25. But the total interest paid over the life of the loan would be roughly $8,500 more. For the record, both options offer fixed rates for the full loan term.

So for those who actually keep their mortgage and pay it off over 30 years, they’d be paying more for those costs over the life of the loan.

But most borrowers don’t hold onto their home loans for the full mortgage term, either because they sell, refinance, or prepay.

In other words, the savings may not actually be realized if you pay your loan costs upfront. And even if they are, they aren’t all that spectacular, especially with the effects of inflation at play.

The big question is whether the mortgage rate will really only be an eighth of a percent different, or if in reality, it’s closer to a half point different. That’s when it may make a lot more sense to pay your closing costs out of pocket.

The takeaway is that the mortgage rate on a no cost loan will always be higher than a home loan where you pay your closing costs upfront, all else being equal.

Also note that this loan type is not available in the state of Washington.

Tip: If you take the time to shop around, you may be able to find a no cost loan with a lower interest rate than a mortgage where you must pay your lender costs upfront.

CashCall $995 Flat Fee

They now advertise a $995 Flat Fee

To cover most third-party closing costs and their origination fee

Just pay close attention to the interest rate offered

And make sure you can lock in the rate if you like it

CashCall doesn’t seem to be advertising the no cost deal anymore, though that doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t engineer a similar deal with them.

They now appear to be touting a “$995 Flat Fee” mortgage offer instead, which is their origination charge.

It doesn’t include other items like prepaid interest, discount points, taxes and insurance, lender payoff fees, and so on.

The $995 Flat Fee promotion is available on pretty much all of their loans, from Fannie and Freddie to FHA loans and VA loans, and HARP loans for those who are underwater on their mortgages.

The one thing that scared me was a line on their rate sheet about rates being floated until documents are drawn. I wonder if you can actually lock in your rate beforehand.

CashCall ‘Do Over Refi’

When mortgage rates were in a downward trajectory

The company offered a Do Over Refi option

Which promised a lower interest rate

If your existing fixed-rate mortgage funded within the past 18 months

Another mortgage product they’ve offered is the so-called “Do Over Refinance,” which allows owner-occupied borrowers to refinance with CashCall Mortgage if their loan recently funded elsewhere.

Call it a play on mortgage rates marching lower and lower as time goes on.

By recently funded, I mean within the past 18 months. Borrowers must provide a copy of the mortgage note or statement with the current fixed interest rate, the mortgage term and loan type, then CashCall will offer a lower fixed rate with no closing costs.

Just watch out for that lower rate coming with a shorter mortgage term, such as a 10-year fixed instead of a 15-year of 30-year fixed, as shorter terms will always come with lower rates.

Oh, and refinance loans must fund within 30 days of application, which isn’t so easy these days. But if CashCall can’t hold up their end of the bargain, they’ll pay the borrower $500.

CashCall Offers Jumbo Loans up to $3 Million

They offer jumbo loans up to $3 million loan amounts

On certain products

Including a no tax return 30-year fixed

But most programs only go as high as the agency high balance limits ($679,650)

In May 2013, CashCall began offering super jumbo loans as well, with loan amounts of up to $2 million at a maximum loan-to-value ratio (LTV) of 70% (720 minimum FICO score required), which is certainly pretty aggressive post-mortgage crisis.

CashCall Mortgage has since pushed that maximum up to $3 million, at least on certain products like their No Tax Return Loan, which as the name suggests, doesn’t require tax returns.

Common Sense Loans from CashCall

Their latest line of mortgage products

Include alternative documentation

High DTI maximums

And interest-only options

They also have a new line of home loans called “Common Sense Loans,” or CSL for short, which allow a variety of outside-the-box underwriting options.

For example, you can use Alt-doc to qualify as opposed to full documentation, and they allow DTI ratios above and beyond 43%, which is the typical cutoff for most lenders.

CashCall allows asset qualification, which relies on bank statements or money in the bank to qualify you for a mortgage.

For example, in some cases you can use bank statements to document income as opposed to tax returns if you’re a self-employed borrower.

Lastly, they have an interest-only option on a 5/1 ARM if you’d rather put your hard-earned money elsewhere.

Aside from the CSL line, they primarily offer fixed-rate loan options on most of their loan programs, including 10, 15, 20, and 30-year fixed loans.

If you’re shopping for a jumbo home mortgage, you may want to consider CashCall alongside other options seeing that very few lenders are in this space at the moment.

You can also get a high-balance (up to $679,650) fixed loan product that meets the guidelines of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Update: In early 2015, CashCall Mortgage was acquired by Impac Mortgage Holdings based out of Irvine, California. If anything, this might allow them to be even more creative/aggressive with their loan program offerings.

Before creating this blog, Colin worked as an account executive for a wholesale mortgage lender in Los Angeles. He has been writing passionately about mortgages for 13 years.

12 Comments

GreggJanuary 9, 2013 at 1:34 pm -

CashCall offers the most competive rates for no cost loans. In a market where rates are dropping why would you pay points only to refi again and again. If the rate is 1/4 percent lower than your current rate and it is no cost then do it!

plutoJanuary 10, 2013 at 10:56 pm -

Very impressed with Cashcall mtg.. they did our loan in 14 days (application to payoff) on a no-cost loan. In my case, I dropped the rate from 5% prior to 4% after refi, so didn’t mind an 1/8 etc. My strategy: never try for the LOWEST rate, just leave an 1/8 in rate for the lender, you’ll be amazed how well they treat you and how fast they will work on your file. Afterall, they need to make money as well ;-)

Larry GrayJanuary 30, 2013 at 8:21 pm -

That is great Pluto. Of course Yelp…still far from perfect… has more accuracy then most. People have to have their information provided to do reviews and report to the public. Cash Call has their usual best customers that loan officers have persuaded to go on or some went on their own…but the negatives are alarming.

I checked long time lending groups with experience lenders who funded many millions of loans each year and none…none had any negative comments. You really have to screw up to get negative comments for your two weeks or 30 days or whatever in the loan process with a loan officer for someone to take the time to publicly complain about you on YELP! And they do in numbers,…lookout at not losing your property if a purchase loan!

Advertising heavily means order taking loan officers, that even if they are knowledgeable and following with the incredible amount of information you have to keep up with (doubtful they will) most have no time to deal properly with all that is required to be near perfect in the purchase loan process. Refi- well you take your chances and at worst you still end up with the rate you already have!

KimJuly 22, 2013 at 7:45 am -

Amazingly, they closed my refinance loan in less than two weeks. I was very, very skeptical, seeing that I heard refinances were taking two months on average everywhere else. Their lock period was only 15 days, so I figured that was the bait and switch. But we closed before the lock expired and I got the rate I was originally quoted. Of course, my loan was easy and stayed on the company like a hawk. Do the same if you want to get your loan closed fast.

BrandiFebruary 10, 2014 at 10:39 pm -

I noticed CashCall has two options now – no lender fees and no closing costs. Make sure you pay attention to the difference because the former means you are on the hook for third party charges!

fredFebruary 11, 2014 at 2:29 pm -

If I have a 5 year old “first time homebuyer” mortgage, what options would I have to refi? It was a FIXED 30 year at 4.875%, (25 years to go). There isn’t enough equity for most conventional refi loans because the first time loans allow for a much smaller down payment. We don’t have 20% to put down just to reduce our rate. Still, there must be a way, even if we put down little or nothing and it gets rolled into the finance. The key would be we would need a loan with no penalty for early payment. So what we would save, lets say $200 to $400 a month, we would apply right back to principal.

Colin RobertsonFebruary 11, 2014 at 4:11 pm -

Fred,

The going rate for a 30-year fixed is around 4.5%, so your rate of 4.875% isn’t necessarily high. And it sounds like your loan-to-value is higher than 80%, which could make you eligible for HARP if your loan is owned by Fannie/Freddie, but even then the rate might still be 4.625% or higher. I’m looking at CashCall’s current mortgage rates and that’s the case with them. So the savings won’t be very high assuming the loan isn’t enormous.

RobbinOctober 10, 2016 at 12:21 pm -

I was unable to find a mortgage company that would take a loan for 80 acres and a mobile home. So I ended up with a 5.75 interest rate on a land loan and a 6.75 on a mobile home loan. I owe about 100K on each loan. I’ve been in both loans for about 4 years.

Are there any loans out there that could combine the two mortgages for a decent home rate like most home owners can get?

Colin RobertsonOctober 11, 2016 at 8:06 am -

Robbin,

I’m not sure…may want to speak with some brokers that specialize in mobile to see if they know of any options for you.

Mark SeeFebruary 13, 2017 at 4:53 pm -

I had my primary home for closed on last year. I have a completely paid off second home I want to borrow against to remodel. This is now my primary residence. What kind of loan could I get now without waiting 7 years for credit to restore? Mark

Colin RobertsonFebruary 15, 2017 at 3:31 pm -

Mark,

There might be a portfolio or non-QM type loan program with no waiting period…could ask some brokers and/or shop around to see what’s out there.

Fred GrugelMarch 24, 2017 at 12:07 pm -

The VA team helped me to secure a consolidation loan at the lowest rate around, I would recomend the Steven Spriggs, Vanessa Garcia, and Alex, sorry about the last name, but they did such a great job helping me to lower my monthly outlay, and be able to do needed upgrades on my home! Thank you all for doing such a great job!!